The Superheroes Encyclopaedia

Bucky Barnes

James Buchanan Barnes (named after James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States), was born in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1925. He is an orphan, the son of a soldier killed in training at U.S. Army Camp Lehigh in Virginia just before the United States' entry into World War II. As a result, he is unofficially adopted by the camp as a mascot. Nicknamed "Bucky", he takes to wearing a uniform and becoming savvy with the ins and outs of military life, even though he is a teenager. It was at Lehigh that he meets and befriends Private Steven Rogers, who by all appearances is the clumsiest soldier in the camp. This was at the same time that reports of the then-mysterious Captain America begin to appear in news magazines, and Barnes eagerly devours the accounts of this new hero.

In 1940, Bucky accidentally walked in on Steve Rogers changing into his uniform, thus discovering his friend was Captain America and insisted that he join him. He underwent extensive training and was assigned to be Captain America's partner. The military justified putting a 15-year-old in harm's way by using him as a symbol to rally the youth of America (as revealed in Captain America vol. 5, #12, Dec 2005). They fight the Red Skull together, and Captain America accepts Bucky as his partner. Together, Captain America and Bucky fight Nazis both at home and abroad, as a duo and as part of the superhero team known as the Invaders, fighting Master Man in their first mission. Barnes also teams up with the sidekicks of other heroes in a group called the Young Allies. Additionally, Bucky was retconned in 1976 as the organizer of the flashback World War II super-team the Liberty Legion, set between the formations of the Invaders and the post-war All-Winners Squad. He was also briefly one of the Kid Commandos at this time. Bucky served as an advance scout for Captain America and the Invaders, often being assigned tasks that none of the heroes could be seen doing.

In the closing days of World War II in 1945, Captain America and Bucky tried to stop the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive device on it, with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. They reach the plane just before it takes off. Bucky unsuccessfully tries to defuse the bomb, and it explodes in mid-air before reaching its intended target. He will be believed to have been killed in action, as Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.[11] Rogers' body, preserved in suspended animation in a block of ice, is found decades later by The Avengers while searching the Arctic for the Sub-Mariner.

It was only in modern times that Captain America would learn that Bucky had a sister, Rebecca, whom he met at a veterans Christmas celebration. Bucky also had one notable post-mortem appearance when the Grandmaster challenged the West and East Coast Avengers for the destruction of the universe, apparently resurrecting long-dead friends and foes for them to fight. Captain America battled Bucky, whom he defeated, and the apparitions disappeared.

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Alter ego- James Buchanan Barnes

Team Affiliations- Invaders
- Young Allies
- Kid Commandos
- Avengers
-Department X
- Legion of the Unliving

Partnerships- Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon

Notable aliases- Winter Soldier, New Captain America

Abilities- Master hand to hand combatant and martial artist
Gifted advance scout
Use of military weapons and throwing knives

As Winter Soldier:
Expert assassin and spy
Via cybernetic left arm:
Superhuman strength
Enhanced reaction time
Energy projection
EMP discharger
Holographic projector

As Captain America:
Use of Vibranium alloy shield and shock absorbing costume
Carries conventional weapons